Connie Ragen Green Shares Internet Marketing Updates

Tag Archives: Business

When It Comes to Small Business Branding, You Are Your Brand

Here’s secret successful marketers know and where small business branding comes into play: customers don’t buy a product. They buy you.

Your personality. Your experience. The unique qualities only you possess.

There was a time when “branding” meant a corporate-looking logo and a slick catalog, but in today’s online marketplace, the real value is not in appearing to be a big company, but rather in just being you. And your personality shines through in a variety of ways.

I was at a conference recently where some of the top experts in the field of small business branding were teaching us how to effectively brand what we do online. Here are some tips they shared that you may find useful:

Your Authentic Voice

How you speak and write and even how you act on camera or in an audio interview has the power to instantly identify you to your audience. You can see this in action if you scroll through your Facebook feed. It’s easy to know who has posted a particular image or status update, just by recognizing the voice with which they generally speak. This is crucial to small business branding.

Here’s an even more important aspect of your “voice” though: it has the power to attract a specific audience. In recent years, a few high profile coaches and product sellers have become celebrities of a sort, largely because of their harsh, “don’t hold back” language. Ash Ambirge over at The Middle Finger Project makes no apologies for her use of offensive words, and her fans love her for it. And those that don’t? Well, as she says right on her home page, her site and services are “not for humorless bores.”

Snarkiness and foul language is not the only way to go, though. Carrie Wilkerson has built her brand almost entirely on her ability to be kind and generous. She always has a nice word, never appears defeated or overwhelmed, and is an inspiration to her fans and clients.

While very different in their approach, these two women have one thing in common: authenticity. It’s clear that if you were to meet either of them in person, they would speak and act exactly as they do online. And their brands are stronger for it.

Your Story and Small Business Branding

How did you get to where you are today? The backstory – which to you might seem boring and uneventful – is a powerful tool that can help solidify your brand and attract just the right audience.

Melissa Ingold tells of being a struggling single mother, and of creating an online business rather than simply choosing to work one dead-end job after another. Her success is an inspiration to her audience, and is a huge part of her branding.

Kelly McCausey speaks often of how she got started online when she was looking for a way to earn just a few extra dollars every month to keep the lights on. Creating graphics at $5 each quickly turned into a full-time online career.

Gary Vaynerchuk is an example of someone whose personal brand somehow became a little bigger than life. He says”…

“For those that don’t know me, in my earlier days as a budding businessman and entrepreneur, I took my passion for wine and turned that into one of the biggest shows and channels on YouTube. That show landed me appearances on The Conan O’Brien Show, Ellen, CNN, etc. while amassing a social following of millions and establishing me as a “guru” (I’m not a guru) of sorts in the Social Media, Marketing, and Personal Branding worlds. From there, I became an early investor in platforms like Twitter, Tumblr, and Facebook and co-founded VaynerMedia, which is now a 600 person digital agency that represents the social presence of brands like Pepsi-Co, General Electric, and Anheuser-Busch InBev.”

And my story includes details of how I worked for twenty years as a classroom teacher while simultaneously working in real estate. After multiple bouts with cancer and a serious work injury I was ready to change my life completely and became an online entrepreneur.

Your story doesn’t have to be dramatic, and you certainly don’t have to share more than you’re comfortable with, but it does have to be yours. Be your true self, and you’ll never have to worry about attracting the right audience. They will self-select, and your perfect client will find you.

I’m Connie Ragen Green and I work with new online entrepreneurs to help them get into profit as quickly as possible with information products, affiliate marketing, marketing for small businesses, blogging, authorship, and more. Download your Online Entrepreneur Blueprint and get started right away.

It took me a full year of thinking and planning to create my first information product. Most of this time was spent in thinking about what I couldn’t do because of a variety of reasons. These included not feeling like I had anything worthwhile to offer, believing that many others knew much more about my topic than I did, and telling myself that no one would be interested in purchasing information from me. The planning and creation of my first product only took about three days.

Once I got over my fears and lack of confidence about product creation and entrepreneurship in general, that’s when I really took off as a product creator and online marketer. It turned out that all I truly needed was a boost to my self confidence and then I realized that people were hungry for my information, knowledge, and experiences around many topics.

You can create what I refer to as “fast information products” by choosing your topic and jumping right in to decide what you will teach and share with others. This begins with your outline, where you make a list of what you will include in your info product as well as what you will exclude. This part of the product creation process is crucial to your success, as it is when we write a book or embark on any other journey for our life or business.

Once your outline is complete, begin preparing a written report for your product that can easily be turned into a PDF (portable document format) from within your word processing program. People prefer to have everything written out in this way so they can either print it out or refer to it later for reference.

Then add either an audio or video component to make sure the specifics of what you are teaching are explained and demonstrated in a clear and concise way. This will also add perceived value to what you are sharing in your information product. I would advise against creating an information product comprised of only audio or video training, as the written document is preferred by most people these days.

The final step is to write a short sales letter where you introduce yourself and your topic to your target audience. Include some bullet points listing exactly what you are teaching on your topic and also tell readers what is included in the product. Don’t forget to tell them what they are receiving so they will know if the material is written, audio, video, or a combination of two or three of these modalities.

I deliver all of my products using a membership site plugin called Wishlist Member. I was in a Mastermind with the creators of this WordPress plugin for several years and use Wishlist on more than forty of my sites.

You will find that creating fast information products is an excellent way to grow your inventory and build a lucrative online business. An example of one of these “fast information products” is one I created with Adrienne Dupree called Top WP Plugins for Business. It sells for only ten dollars and shares our top twenty WordPress plugins we use for our own businesses. Think of this as a low cost investment to learn the step by step process of how to set up and deliver fast information products to your target audience.

I’m Connie Ragen Green and I’ve been an online entrepreneur since 2006. If you are ready to get started on your journey to multiple streams of online income, visit my site at Online Entrepreneur Blueprint and download your complimentary training to get started today.

Is It Time to Leverage the Internet?

The calendar may say 2017, but are you doing business as if it were still 1999? What I mean by this is that it may be time to add an online component to what you are doing in your bricks and mortar business. Allow me to explain further exactly what I mean and to bring you fully into the new millennium by learning how to leverage the internet.

Marketing for small businesses is something I’ve done since the summer of 2007. I was new to online marketing at the time and offered to help a family member with his handyman business. He was still paying for a small print advertisement in the local newspaper, as well as for ads in a couple of local magazines. This was a costly proposition and he was just starting out. He confided in me that it sometimes took two full weeks before he was in profit each month. We agreed that I would help him out for the first month at no charge to see what would happen. I wanted to leverage the internet for his business.

First, I set up a simple site for him using the WordPress platform. The domain I used was the name of his business so that prospective clients could find him more easily. This worked extremely well. I also wrote short articles on this new site about his business, using the words anyone might type into Google if they were looking for a handyman in his location to do specific tasks for them. Within two months he pulled his ads and begin getting as many assignments as he needed from what I had set up for him.

Now I do not mean to say that print advertising is not valuable and worthwhile. If anything, it is quite the opposite. Your ads let people know you are legitimately in business and reach those for whom the internet is not a medium they trust to inform them and to find reliable and trustworthy services. Choose the publications you know and trust and continue to advertise there. But adding the online component is crucial for long term success in any business.

The second part of this marketing strategy to leverage the internet is to begin building a database of customers, clients, and prospects. This will become a valuable asset to your business over time. The idea here is to stay in touch with the people you serve so that you can open up the lines of communication more easily. Email them regularly and let them know what is happening in your industry. And use this as an opportunity to offer a discount coupon or other seasonal special.

The third and final component to small business marketing online is to offer something related to your business that can be delivered digitally. This can be a monthly audio recording that is available as a podcast on iTunes, a short book where you explain in great detail what you offer in your business, or even a physical product that could be available on Amazon and delivered by them. These components will serve to connect you with more prospects and to set you apart as someone who is at the top of their field or industry.

Setting up and maintaining a WordPress website costs about a hundred dollars each year. Setting up and maintaining a digital database is about two hundred dollars a year. Having these as a part of your business is priceless. Take a look at my Small Business Marketing training course so that you can leverage the power of the internet for your business and come into the new millennium.

I’m Connie Ragen Green and I’ve been an online entrepreneur since 2006. If you are ready to get started on your journey to multiple streams of online income, visit my site at Online Entrepreneur Blueprint and download your complimentary training to get started today.

My Story of How to Build an Online Business

When I set out to learn how to build an online business during the winter and spring of 2006 I had no idea what I was in for with this new venture. I just knew that I needed to leave my former life behind and begin something new. I had worked for twenty years as a classroom teacher, teaching grades Kindergarten through high school at four different school. And as if that weren’t enough, I had simultaneously worked in my own business as a real estate broker and certified residential appraiser. At that point I was exhausted and ready for a change. What had started out as an enjoyable career as a teacher supplemented by my work in real estate became almost intolerable after I got older and went through a serious work injury and multiple bouts with cancer.

It was during the spring of 2005 that I began to think about doing something new and changing my life in a major way. But I had no idea where to turn or what was possible for me at this stage of my life. I was about to celebrate my fiftieth birthday and yearned for something new.

I began to read books on business and entrepreneurship in search of some answers. Everyone in my life at that time knew that I was on a quest for answers and solutions to my dilemma. I have to say that people were supportive overall, yet no one seemed to have the answers I was looking for and so wanted to find. Then one night at a friend’s birthday party I was introduced to a couple by mutual friends. They had left the corporate world behind about a year earlier and were enjoying a life I could only imagine. The wife, Alicia had chosen to learn about day trading in the stock market while Patrick, the husband had gone into real estate. I was fascinated by what they had been able to achieve in such a short time and we became fast friends.

Each Sunday they got up at the crack of dawn and went hiking in our local mountains and invited me to join them. It was during these early morning hikes that I first had a glimpse of another life that I could have if I was willing to take full responsibility and make things happen for myself. I was more than willing to humble myself during this process and time of change. We discussed everything, from relationships and religion to business and education and everything in between. I attended their new age church with them a few times and also went to seminars and workshops they recommended. By April of 2005 my thinking had shifted and I was taking in information in a much different way that I ever had in the past.

It was during this month that a friend invited me to a real estate expo at the Los Angeles Convention Center. It was a weekend event but I told him that I only had time to attend on Saturday. We made the forty mile drive downtown together, barely talking while sitting in heavy traffic. When we finally arrived we agreed to go separate ways until lunch, allowing us to each explore the sessions that were of interest to us individually. At lunch we would share our experiences and regroup for the afternoon.

It was fun to be away from my usual Saturday activities of real estate and classroom preparation. I had seldom taken a day for myself over the years so I welcomed this opportunity to explore new opportunities. There were sessions on buying foreclosed properties and those in probate, as well as ones on investing in multi-family buildings. Then I heard someone speaking about something I couldn’t quite understand and I went into that session and took a seat in the back row.

The man speaking was Raymond Aaron, the person who would become my very first mentor. He was explaining how much you could achieve when you led a “mentored life” and it all made perfect sense to me. An hour later I had signed up for his program and had a huge box of manuals and cassette tapes to show for it.

When my friend and I met for lunch I had a spring in my step and a twinkle in my eye, or so he later told me. I knew that most anything was possible and that I was going to start finding the answers I so longed for very quickly.

Within a couple of months of working with Raymond and following his program I had discovered the online world of business. And when I wanted to learn how to build an online business everything I needed unfolded with grace and ease. I was introduced to new business models and ways of thinking that were exciting yet challenging. I began to blog regularly and this was my first foray into the world of writing and authorship. I embraced this challenge wholeheartedly and my writing slowly began to improve.

So this is the story of how to build an online business if you are currently in a world that seems far away from any type of entrepreneurship. Once I allowed myself to live a mentored life the people I needed magically appeared. They say that when the student is ready the teacher appears and this was my experience.

Now I don’t want you to think this was easy. There were so many days when I told myself that anyone in their right mind would have given up long before that day. But I was determined to learn more each day and to not give up. I discovered that the online marketing world is filled with something motivation speaker and entrepreneur Brian Tracy refers to as “learnable skills”. And once I knew and believed that I did not have to come into this with God given talents and abilities I was then willing to learn whatever I needed to in order to achieve success.

Beginning with blogging and affiliate marketing I soon expanded to local business marketing and information product creation. This was followed by adding the business models of mentoring and consulting as well as authorship and publishing. Niche and membership sites came next and soon I had many plates spinning joyfully in the air. Learning how to build an online business was even more exciting and rewarding than I had imagined!

If you are longing to learn how to build an online business for yourself, be willing to take the time to explore just what is possible for you in your current situation. This is an amazing way to earn an excellent living and you can run your business as an online entrepreneur from anywhere in the world. I regularly work on my business from the beach in Santa Barbara or a coffee shop with wifi, and have also worked from a summer cottage at the lake in Finland, a hotel lobby in Bangkok, and an internet cafe in Amsterdam. None of this would be possible with any other job or career I can think of, and it’s so much fun. Know that you can achieve all of your entrepreneurial goals and take the steps to put the life you wish to live into motion.

I’m Connie Ragen Green and I work with new online entrepreneurs to help them get into profit as quickly as possible. Download your Online Entrepreneur Blueprint and get started right away.

Create Online Courses

Information products can come in all shapes, sizes, and formats. One of my favorite ways to create an info product is to create online courses. I have done this over a hundred times since coming online a decade ago, and each time I perfect the process so that my students may learn it from me and implement the strategy for their own business.

I define an online course as one that can be accessed and consumed virtually, meaning that there will not be a face to face component as a part of the training course. I began by teaching on teleseminars, but for years now I have used webinars to teach a variety of topics online. Also, I record the audio separately so that people in my online courses may choose whether to watch the replay or to simply listen to the audio. Over the years I have found that the majority of people will only watch the webinar once, but want to have access to the audio to listen to additional times.

Online Courses: Choosing Your Topic

Deciding what to teach does not have to be a lengthy process. I get my ideas primarily from conversations I have with my students. I run an active mentor program where people come to me at various points in their online entrepreneurial careers and the discussions that arise lead me to teach a variety of topics. If one person asks about or struggles with something related to their business, then I know that many, many more people are also stuck on that topic. I make some notes and then create a new online course to answer the questions that need to be answered and to share some strategies that are working for me.

You may also come up with ideas based on news articles, discussions in a forum or on social media or even from face to face contact with people you know, and by thinking of things that you struggled with in the past. Ideas are everywhere and when you think about the problems and solutions people have and are seeking you will quickly come up with viable topics for online courses you could teach.

Online Courses: Delivery

Like I stated earlier, I deliver my online courses using webinars. I may also include handouts, checklists, study guides, and other materials. In this live interaction with my students I am able to guide them through my course over a period of several sessions. In between each session I assign them activities and tasks that will enrich their experience and bring them closer to achieving their goals.

Online Courses: Accessibility

Membership sites work well for accessing materials and replays for your online course. This can all be set up quickly and easily by you or someone who helps you with the technology portion of your online business. This way your students may log in to the member’s area whenever it is convenient for them and consume your training at their own pace.

I teach a popular training course on how to do everything I have discussed here, and more in my Really Simple Online Courses training program. I would love to teach you everything I know on this topic so that you could get started right away with this lucrative business model.

I’m Connie Ragen Green and I’ve been an online entrepreneur since 2006. If you are ready to get started on your journey to multiple streams of online income, visit my site at Online Entrepreneur Blueprint and download your complimentary training to get started today.

Business Overwhelm and How to Move Past It

Life can be overwhelming at times, even under the best of circumstances. But if you are an entrepreneur, business overwhelm may be something that you were not expecting. Let’s discuss how you can face this situation head on and change the way you approach what you are trying to achieve in your business.

You probably started your business in order to have more of a choice in the way you worked. Perhaps you had previously worked for a corporation or had a career you had prepared for over many years, and at some point that lifestyle was not serving you. In my work with newer entrepreneurs I find that the possibility of earning more income was not as important a factor in their decision to start their own business as was the goal of having more free time, choice of when and where to work, and the dream of making a difference in the world through the new business and other ventures.

But here you are at some point down the road, and the idea of working fifty or sixty hours a week for someone else does not seem so bad. In fact, you might yearn for the days when the final responsibility of running a business was not left entirely up to you. If this describes your thinking, then stop it right now. You are simply suffering from business overwhelm and need to get back on track to enjoy what you have created as an entrepreneur.

Most likely this business overwhelm stems from the fact that you have too many ideas, you are trying to focus on too many things at once, and you feel like you must do everything yourself. Remember that you are in charge of what happens and must take full responsibility for everything that occurs in your business. This also means that you are in control, so keep that in mind as you move forward.

Don’t be afraid to say no to people and projects that do not fit into your schedule. Maintain a calendar so that you know what you are working on at all times. Each day you must work on income producing activities first and foremost, before you accept tasks that are not crucial to the survival of your business. Just as they tell us when we fly to put on our own oxygen mask before assisting others, the same is true of our business. Help yourself before helping others and you will have achieved a balance that will serve you well.

Set your priorities and goals for your life and for your business. Maintain a to-do list that helps you to decide what activities can be delegated to others, which ones can be eliminated, and which must be done only by you. You will be amazed at how effective this is in minimizing your business overwhelm because you are only good at a few things. That means you only have to do those things.

For example, I am only good at writing, teaching, creating products, and mentoring entrepreneurs. There is very little else that I do in my business because the other things are best done by the people who will do them in the way I like for them to be done. If you try to do these tasks and activities you are taking them away from others who enjoy doing them.

Take a deep breath. Know that business overwhelm creeps into the hearts and minds of most entrepreneurs. And know that you can achieve everything you intended to by thinking first and then taking action in the proper direction each day.

I’m Connie Ragen Green, online marketing strategist, bestselling author, and international speaker on the topics of entrepreneurship and inner game mind shifts. Let’s connect to see how I may best serve you in the near future. And please be sure to check out my Internet Marketing Six Pack training course.

Why Repurposing Content Just Makes Sense

When I create content of any type, and that would include written content, audio recording, and videos, it isn’t long before I begin repurposing content into other formats. I’m going to share with you here how to get started with this marketing and content creation strategy for best results in your own online business.

You may be thinking that people do not wish to be exposed to the same or similar content more than once, but I have found that not to be true at all during my decade working as an online entrepreneur. Instead, we all welcome the opportunity to revisit topics again over time, especially in a variety of formats.

You have a different learning style and preference than the next person, and if you are able to consume information in a way that is easier and more enjoyable for you to absorb then you will benefit. And if your business has grown within the last 6 months? If so, there’s a good chance that your content is going to be reaching an all new audience for the most part. Also, I’ve found that if I wait at least six months to share content with my community they are quite receptive to it.

Repurposing content is based on finding evergreen (something that will be relevant for many years to come) content and turning it into a slightly different format to share. For example, repurposing content that was originally created in a written format into audio or video content makes a lot of sense. My personal preference is to consume content while reading and listening to it simultaneously, and many people love this as well. You will want to survey your target audience to see which formats they prefer before you begin repurposing content for them.

Start by reading through your blog posts to see which ones could be put together into a short report with audio or a slide presentation. The best idea is to combine your content into something new that is also more substantial in terms of length. Then get busy repurposing this content and immediately begin distributing it to your community, both as free giveaways and as paid products and courses.

If you make a plan and a schedule for this, you will find that you have more content than you could ever get to over time. Perhaps spending two days a week in content creation and three days a week repurposing content will be the most effective strategy for you. Find a rhythm that works for you and stick with it for at least a month before evaluating what you have done.

As you can see, the idea of creating content and then repurposing it into other formats is a solid business model that can be replicated easily over the lifetime of your business.

I’m Connie Ragen Green, online marketing strategist, bestselling author, and international speaker on the topics of entrepreneurship and inner game mind shifts. Let’s connect to see how I may best serve you in the near future. Be sure to take a look at my Really Simple Content Marketing training course to help get you started on how to think like a publisher.

Blogging for Your Business

The purpose of this writing is to encourage you to blog for your business on a regular basis. This has been the most difficult challenge for my students, even though they continue to see my success because of my blogs. It is my hope to somehow inspire and motivate you to get started, continue, or get back to blogging for your business today.

I started my first blog while still working as a classroom teacher. I had fifth grade that year and we decided to blog about the science projects we were reading about. The budget had once again been cut, and science took the biggest hit at my school. So instead of having any hands on experiments or a science fair, I thought at least we could start a blog and write about what we were learning.

The students embraced the technology without question and we launched our science blog the day we decided to move forward. We had three working computers in our classroom so three people could always be working on something for the new site simultaneously. This was 2003, so it was primitive in terms of today’s capabilities, but I was willing to do anything to keep my students actively engaged in the learning process. Little did I know that blogging would become the foundation and backbone of my business just a few years later.

These days I maintain two main blogs. One is found under my name – Connie Ragen Green – and the other is at Huge Profits Tiny List. I won’t go into the details and story behind my second blog, but suffice it to say I have very good reasons for posting to both of them.

Blogging for my business allowed me to find my voice. I wasn’t a writer when I came online, but thanks to the many blog posts I wrote during that first year I became one. These days I write five hundred to a thousand word a day, every day, and when I am writing a book or a short report that is likely to double or even triple. But I won’t ever forget what it was like during the early days of staring at my computer screen and not knowing what to write about.

That’s when I began learning about keywords and SEO )search engine optimization). I found out that when people searched for specific topics the results were all tied to the words used. In the beginning I helped people to write, publish, and market eBooks. Finding our which words your target audience was searching for helped you to write eBooks that could be found and purchased by the people who wanted and needed the information.

My blogs provide me with a platform to tell the world what I think. Getting your message out to the world is crucial, and you don’t want to leave it to the temporary world of social media posts to do that. Blog posts are permanent and allow you to be in control of your content. You are a publisher at the click of a button and can reach a million people around the world.

I also discuss and share details and information about my products and courses on my blogs. I consider these posts to be “advertorials” in which you combine your information with the sales details in the style of an editorial or objective journalistic article. Instead of paying for advertisements to your products, the only cost here is your time. And what you write in your post is there forever, as opposed to only as long as you are paying to display it.

SEO, a platform for your message, and the advertorial approach to selling your products are just a few of the benefits of blogging for your business. The writing will get easier over time. Your site will get more popular with the search engines over time. You’ll learn how to become a skilled copywriter over time. Be willing to put in the time and your work as an online entrepreneur will soar.

I’m Connie Ragen Green, online marketing strategist, bestselling author, and international speaker on the topics of entrepreneurship and inner game mind shifts. Let’s connect to see how I may best serve you in the near future.

Once you know you want an affiliate program, you need to find affiliates. Finding affiliates is a combination of simply asking people and letting interested parties know about your program. In addition, you can encourage people to be an affiliate by offering excellent products, top-notch customer service, and a by offering generous commission. Learning how to find affiliates for your business will change everything you do from now on. Here are the very best strategies to do this today…

Direct Contact – Find competitors and others who market to your audience who do not offer exact products or services as you and approach them directly. Work first to build relationships with these people in online groups, via joint ventures, events, and more and you’ll be certain to get a percentage of these people to sign up for your affiliate program and promote your products and services.

Clients – Your best affiliates can come from people who have purchased from you. Definitely, run an email series for your customers to encourage them to earn money by recommending your products to their friends and family. This is a great way to end up with a true fan as an affiliate.

Colleagues – Even if you work from home, you are likely part of a group of like-minded individuals online and / or offline. Ensure that you let these people know that you have an affiliate program so that they can choose to join if they want to. You can also if you’ve used the right type of software, give special commission amounts to people you know.

Movers & Shakers – You’ve seen them on Twitter, Facebook groups, and probably on numerous webinars and other places. These big earners shake things up. Work toward building a relationship with them, then make it super simple for them to promote by giving them a free copy, graphics, and more. Offer to set it all up for them so that all they have to do is collect the money when they make sales. As a fellow “mover and shaker” you can bet I always know how to find affiliates.

Conferences – You can also meet potential affiliates at live events and conferences. Whether you’re a speaker or an attendee, you may meet people who need to offer your products to their audience. Make it worth their while to promote you, by also promoting them.

Print Publications – You can place ads in relevant print publicans such as work at home magazines and other magazines devoted to people who are interested in this type of income opportunity.

Social Media – If you join groups and friend people online, ensure that you also connect with potential affiliates. Take the time to get to know them. When it’s appropriate, let them know about your affiliate program. You can use social media also to talk about how excited you are about your affiliate program. The more enthusiastic you are about the program, the more they will want to join to earn money.

Blogging – Use your blog part of the time, to speak to potential affiliates. Your blog provides your audience with solutions to their problems. But, once you have an affiliate program, you can also mention how you want to help as many people as possible and your readers can help by becoming an affiliate.

Forums/Groups – Any groups you’re part of, online or offline, can be great places to find affiliates. The best thing to do is to build relationships with people you think would like and promote your products. Offer to do things for them, make your program so inviting that they can’t resist.

Online Ads – Another way to attract affiliates is to advertise the program and its benefits. You can use Facebook, Twitter, or even Ad Words to market the program. This works very well, if you have a good product funnel, offer excellent commissions, and a wide range of products for your niche.

Your Website – Don’t forget that your website is the hub of your business. Keep reminder info and an affiliate program link in a prominent place on your site. This can be short and link to further information about the program details.

Word-of-Mouth – People like to talk, so if you do a good job taking care of your affiliates plus offering really great products then super affiliates will notice you and talk about you. Plus, when they start promoting your products, other people in their circle will notice and join too.

Cold Calls – If you know people already that promote other people’s products and you’re sure that your product fits in with their niche, go ahead and drop them an email, or even get them on the phone. Be ready to explain what is so great about your product and how it benefits their audience. Plus, explain how you’re going to make it super easy for them to be part of your program.

Hire an Affiliate Manager – Even if you’re just starting your program, hiring an affiliate manager can help you grow your affiliate program faster. Hire someone who is familiar with your niche, who has connections to promote to super affiliates and who understands the software you use. A good affiliate manager will know exactly how to find affiliates for you.

Directories – There are directories, such as affiliatesseeking.com, where you can list your affiliate program. They do require a link back, but it’s free. More than likely, you won’t find as many affiliates this way since building relationships is very important. However, it does help direct potential affiliates to your opportunity.

Affiliate Networks – Another great way to find affiliates is to list your products in affiliate networks such as Clickbank.com or JVZOO.com. Marketers who are looking for a product to promote often go there to search for products. Make sure you offer a great program, and a lucrative commission. Include tools to make promoting easy. These could articles, graphics, emails, etc.

Finding and recruiting affiliates is only part of starting an affiliate program. Now you need to make your affiliate offer worthy, appealing and timely. Plus, the more unique your offer is, the more affiliates you’ll recruit. Now that you know how to find affiliates, what other questions may I answer for you to help you grow your business?

I’m Connie Ragen Green, online marketing strategist, bestselling author, and international speaker on the topics of entrepreneurship and inner game mind shifts. Let’s connect to see how I may best serve you in the near future.